Editing Goals?

I'm a goal setter. Always have been. When you're doing a first draft, it's easy to set daily, weekly, monthly word count goals.
But what about editing goals?

I asked this of my closest writing pals, and they came up with a few answers for me.

Erika doesn't set a goal per day, but a date by which she wants to finish the whole thing. She says she likes to "do a first pass solely for technical nits: grammar, punctuation, typos, wordiness, repetition etc," and then she edits "for content."

Christie goes by pages, trying to do about three pages a session on short stories.

John said he usually does "a pass for each fix: voice, each major character change," but did admit he feels disorganized about it and was interested in hearing other responses.

So, in honour of our curiosity and compulsion to be better writers, I offered to blog about it. I also bragged on and on about my fantastic LJ peeps, who have always given me great input and writing advice. (hint hint) Time to rally people!

What kind of editing goals do YOU set?

Do you have any suggestions on how to maintain a level of high productivity during editing?

First Draft of Novel Two Complete

I've been so busy reporting about my travel and Evolve events (I know, life's rough) I haven't been checking in about my progress on novel number two.
Well....I finished it yesterday!!

Hooray, hooray. Sure, there's lots of holes, lots of notes to go back and change/fix/add/subtract stuff, but I made to the end. It's just under 90 000 words right now.

I'm taking today off writing to relax and celebrate, but still have my writing workshop tonight...where, btw, we have three new people, all SPEC FIC authors, so that's very exciting for me.

Now what? Ah, now I return to novel number one for another round of edits. *sigh* But for now, we celebrate!! ;)

Ad Astra Convention

This month I attended another great convention, Ad Astra in Toronto.

Evolve had a launch party where I got to dress up like a vampire yet again (so much fun) and read from my story. This truly has been a fantastic anthology to be a part of, and not only that, it's getting GREAT reviews-so go get your copy today! ;)

Some photos from the convention:

First off, me, "vamped up" and ready to bite! I mean, read my story...



Me with fellow Evolve author Rio Youers, author of Mama Fish and Everdead, and overall awesome dude:



Another fantastic Evolve author, Gemma Files, author of Book of Tongues. (also getting RAVE reviews!!)



Brian Hades, of Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing!



Putting a little scare into David Nickle, author of The Claus Effect and Monstrous Affections. (fantastic short stories!)



With fellow newbie author Victoria Fisher. (this is her second publication)



And finally, with ChiZine publisher and fellow Evolve author Sandra Kasturi. (she's FAN-freakin-TASTIC)

World's Biggest Bookstore

I recently returned from Toronto, where Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing held the Canadian launch of the anthology Evolve at the World's Biggest Bookstore.

I showed up early, not knowing how long it would take me to get there from my hotel, and I wanted time to look around the World's Biggest Bookstore. As you might expect, it's HUGE! I arrived about an hour early, and there were already people seated in chairs..a lot of people. I asked one of the ladies working if that was for the Evolve launch. She said, yes, they want to be sure to get a seat. I expressed my surprise, and she said, "Well, they're mostly here to see Kelley Armstrong." I laughed and replied, "That's okay, I am too."

They had to bring out more chairs, and by the time we started, there were people standing all around the outer area as well. Each of us stood and introduced ourselves and some of us read. I read the first page and a half of my story and was thrilled to have a couple of people come through the signing line and say they couldn't wait to read the rest.

It was a fantastic experience, and I'm so glad I made the trip across the country to attend!

Here's a picture of the outside of the store:



All of us authors, lined up and ready to sign copies of Evolve!



A shot of part of the crowd, taken by publisher Brian Hades



Me, intently listening to Kelley Armstrong at the podium. :)



Taking my turn at the podium to speak and read:

Blogs, Trains and Automobiles

I just wanted to do a quick blog to say I'm still here! I've just been travelling so much blogging has fallen down amongst the lesser priority things, eating, sleeping... Yes, it has been that kind of travel. I do plan on blogging about it when I get my photos organized and, well, catch up on some eating and sleeping.

I hope all my LJ friends are doing well, as well as you other Bloggers and Wordpressers. (I'm pushing the english language a bit there)

Thought I'd add something for your viewing and listening pleasure, one of my writing friends tweeted this classical cover of Lady Gaga's song Telephone. So far, everyone agrees it's sexier than the original. ;)

Telephone - Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce - Classical Cover by Aston

Tanith Lee

 I keep saying I am going to blog what I've learned and continue to learn at conventions and conferences. Well, now I am actually going to!!

Tanith Lee was the Author Guest of Honour at the World Horror Convention. I was a fan of hers before meeting her at the convention, but now I'm an even bigger fan. She's an absolutely fantastic lady, passionate about writing, passionate about her readers and passionate about life in general!

I had the opportunity to first meet her when I was dressed up as a Vampire at the Evolve launch. She was fasicinated by my eyes and fangs, while I was in awe of her mere presence! I went to her reading which was fantastic, and several panels she sat on. I'd like to share some Tanith Lee words of wisdom with you.







TANITH LEE WORDS OF WISDOM

Guest of Honour Interview

In an interview panel, Tanith said that she'll do anything not start writing, even when the novel is flowing. This, to me as an aspiring writer, was great to hear. It's not only me then! Even someone who's written over 90 books and 200 short stories struggles with proscrastination.

Interesting fact, Tanith suffers from electronic migraines and writes in long hand.

When Tanith was young and she was down about her writing, her mother told her she was a genius and must write. Her father thought she was mad (which she says she is) but even he couldn't discourage her from writing, she was so passionate about it.

When Tanith was young she wanted to be an actor and know she says that writing is acting. She gets to be all the characters in her stories.

When she is working on getting through to the end of a novel and is beating her head against the wall, she says she will continue to do so "until it or my head breaks way." Don't give up!

When asked what book is she most proud of, Tanith replied, "all of them." How fabulous!

When asked if she reads her own work, Tanith said she finds reading her own work comforting and "settling." It makes her think, "My God, I did this."

When asked about her writing regime, Tanith says that she uses the philosophy of "leave them wanting more" with herself..she will stop at a certain point, knowing what comes next.

In another panel on writing horror for young adults, Tanith Lee had fantastic advice for getting young people to read. She said tell them not to! Tell them it's dangerous... "don't you dare go near that bookcase." I thought that was fantastic advice and I'm sure it would work!

Tanith said to the audience at her interview, "what a delicious thing" to write something that someone enjoys and connects with.

I agree!

Royal Visit

After the World Horror Convention I went to London to spend some time sightseeing. Unfortunately due to the screw ups with British Airways (see previous venting post) I only had half a day. I walked to Buckingham Palace from my hotel. How awesome is that?

I've never been fascinated with the Royal family like some people were growing up. Charles and Di's wedding was "cool" but I didn't fawn over the ordeal like some of my friends. So while it was great to see Buckingham Palace, I was more fascinated with the gorgeous fountain across from it..which you'll notice from the number of pictures I took of the Palace, versus the fountain. ;)

Perhaps if I hadn't been so exhausted from the convention, angry at British Airways and by myself in the pouring rain, it may have been a different experience for me. The logical solution is that I will just have to return to see it (and more of London) again!

Vampires Evolve..and they're AWESOME!

I'm still recovering from the World Horror Convention-did I mention how incredible it was? Oh yes, I think I have, many times.

I did take a lot of pictures, and the pictures that friends took are also rolling in. I thought I'd split up blogging the photos and focus on one fabulous experience at a time.

The Evolve reading which was held on Thursday from 3:00-5:00 went great. All the other authors were very enthusiastic and after hearing their stories, I can't wait to dive in and read all of them in full! The reading room for this convention was set up as a "lounge", with comfortable chairs around tables, rather than theatre style seating. So it was very intimate and created a great atmosphere. We had a full room and everyone was very excited about the anthology by the end!

The launch for Evolve was on Saturday. This is the event I dressed up for. Why? Because I could! LOL. I had a blast putting the outfit together, and it was fun to see people's reactions. One of my fellow authors, Jerome Stueart was so freaked out by my contact lenses, he couldn't look at me! (what better reaction could I ask for?!)Nancy Kilpatrick put on a fantastic event, there were prizes, including your own bag of blood, bottles of vampire wine and one of the special edition copies of Evolve that comes in a coffin!! As contributing authors, we helped out by handing out drink tickets, draw tickets, and little vampire themed goodie bags. Then all 10 authors sat down and people came through the line and had their books signed. I even got to sit beside the Lordess of the Otherworld herself, Kelley Armstrong. She has been a great inspiration to me in my writing, so to sit beside her to sign books was incredible.

Stay tuned for more chilling reports from the World Horror Con. ;)

My vamp costume:



Sitting beside Kelley Armstrong during the reading:



With Nancy Kilpatrick on the very last day in the lobby: